


The Light At The End Of The Tunnel

by mysticanni



Category: Queen (Band)
Genre: Car Accidents, Happy Ending, Hurt/Comfort, Implied/Referenced Homophobia, Injury Recovery, M/M, Near Death Experiences, Secret Relationship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-26
Updated: 2020-11-26
Packaged: 2021-03-08 23:35:20
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,423
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27495058
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mysticanni/pseuds/mysticanni
Summary: When Freddie is injured in a car accident his secret lover abandons him.Luckily the cute blond nurse at the hospital looks after him.
Relationships: Freddie Mercury/Roger Taylor
Comments: 22
Kudos: 22
Collections: The Froger Week 2020





	The Light At The End Of The Tunnel

Freddie is running. He is running along a beach. The golden sand is hot beneath his bare feet. The waves rush onto the shore. Freddie is giggling. He is little in this memory he thinks – five years old perhaps. The sun shines warmly on him. 

Freddie is bored. At the front of the class the teacher drones on. Freddie examines the words previous similarly bored students have carved into the battered wooden top of his desk. J.B. loves E.C. apparently. Dust flies and dances – twirls and twists - in the rays of sunlight filtering in through the windows.

Freddie sits on a picnic blanket spread on the grass. His sketchbook is on his lap and he gazes at the scene in front of him – trees – a crumbling stone archway framing a lake beyond – and he tries to capture it on the paper. A day trip – but where they went he can’t remember. He is a teenager – awkward and self-conscious – hoping everyone will leave him alone while he draws. The sun is warm on his back. 

Freddie is singing. He thinks that in another parallel universe there must be a Freddie who has frozen and is being jeered at by the outraged audience. But here the audience seem surprisingly receptive. He has turned his back on them for now – warding off the panic rising within him – he loves this – he loathes this – what possessed him to do this? They are on a makeshift stage and he feels the boards creak and move beneath him and wonders how safe this is. He sings and the clouds part allowing the sun to emerge weakly. 

A friend of a friend is an astrophysicist – whatever that is. Freddie thinks this is where the idea of a parallel universe came from. The friend of a friend is serious and intense but he has wild curls that seem to promise something different altogether. He writes songs. He has written songs. Freddie – who cannot seem to finish the songs he starts – is intrigued. He is intrigued and slightly jealous although he will not admit to the jealousy.

His relationship with Kevin is clandestine. Secret meetings arranged through cryptic notes. An affair made doubly dangerous because Kevin is both male and one of Freddie’s college tutors. Freddie suspects Kevin would be furious if he knew that Freddie keeps each note in a flowery tin that once held clotted cream fudge.

He is whisked away for a naughty weekend in Cornwall - coincidentally where the clotted cream fudge came from - with Kevin. It is on the way back his world is turned upside down – literally. The world turns upside down accompanied by the screech of brakes – the shriek of metal twisting – the rumble of bricks falling.

That is Freddie’s last memory. And now everything is white – too bright – dazzling – and he can hear familiar voices – there are shadowy figures there at the edges of his vision. They are welcoming him. They are urging him to come to them.

An unfamiliar voice is also talking to him, asking if Freddie can hear him. Well, of course Freddie can hear him, he’s not deaf. Really, this new voice is quite irritating. The white light is fading. Freddie sighs and opens his eyes to find a pair of blue eyes staring back at him. “There you are,” the irritating voice greets him cheerfully. “Don’t worry,” the voice adds, “you’re in good hands. You’re in hospital. Do you remember what happened?”

*

The blue eyes belong to a very cute blond nurse who tells Freddie his name is Roger. Freddie discovers that he has been in a car accident. He vaguely remembers this. “The driver?” he gasps –wary of uttering Kevin’s name even in his confusion. 

Roger shakes his head. “You were the only one there,” he informs Freddie, “but you were in the passenger seat, it’s true. The police will want to speak to you.” He studies Freddie, “You almost died,” he says, “Your heart stopped. Luckily one of the doctors here found you when he was on his way to work.”

“My life flashed in front of my eyes,” Freddie tells Roger, “like in the movies. And there was a white tunnel...”

Roger smiles. “I’m glad you’re here to tell the tale,” he says.

*

Freddie tells the policeman he is a visitor to the area. “I’m an art student – such beautiful countryside,” he explains. He says that someone – “I didn’t catch his name,” he sighs – had been giving him a lift to the nearest train station for his return trip but then the accident had happened. He wonders if they will be able to trace the car back to Kevin who had borrowed it from someone. He wonders how much he cares about whether or not Kevin gets into any trouble – Kevin has abandoned him. From what he has been told about the accident Kevin abandoned him while he was dying. After the policeman has gone Freddie presses his face to the pillow and cries hot tears of self-pity.

*

The policeman returns with the hold-all containing Freddie’s possessions, retrieved from the boot of the car. Freddie asks if they have managed to locate the driver. He expresses concern in case the man was thrown from the car in the accident and has not yet received help. The policeman assures him they have searched the surrounding area but have not found anyone lying injured. The car has apparently been reported stolen which is unexpected. Freddie wonders if Kevin advised his friend to do that. He is no longer sure how he feels about Kevin. “How odd,” he says to the policeman, “that he offered to give me a lift in the first place.”

The policeman agrees that it is odd. He implies darkly that the unknown man may have had his own sinister reasons for stopping for Freddie and that the accident might even have been a blessing in disguise. He does not hold out much hope that the driver will be apprehended. 

*

Reunited with his sketchbook Freddie whiles away the hours in the hospital bed by sketching the other patients and the staff. He finds himself drawing one member of the staff more than the others – trying to capture Roger’s pretty smile or the beauty of his strong capable hands.

Freddie is clumsy around Roger – knocking his sketchbook off the top of the locker or dislodging a pillow. He enjoys the view as Roger bends to pick things up off the floor – his snug trousers stretching delectably over his lovely rear. 

Freddie is healing. Soon he will have to return to his life and this strange interlude in the hospital will be over. 

He has called his parents. He senses both worry and disappointment. He has told them the same story he told to the policeman but they are not so easily fooled.

He is surprised but feels a little glow of pleasure when Roger offers to drive him to the station when he is discharged. Freddie protests that this will be an imposition – that he will take up too much of Roger’s precious time – that it is simply too kind. Roger simply says that he would like to and gives Freddie one of his smiles of sunshine and light.

*

“I think the driver hurt you?” Roger says as he parks his car in the railway station car park. It is not really a question. “And I’m sorry,” he adds.

Freddie shrugs. “You have nothing to be sorry about,” he notes. “You’re right,” he adds.

“He didn’t deserve you,” Roger offers softly. 

“No,” Freddie agrees, “no, he didn’t, darling.” On impulse he leans over and gives Roger a peck on the lips – taking something for once. He deserves that, doesn’t he? He has been close to death – surely he deserves to really enjoy this slice of life?

Roger kisses back enthusiastically. “Perhaps,” he suggests, “I could come to London sometime, to visit you?”

“That would be delightful, darling,” Freddie tells him.

As he settles in his train seat he waves to Roger out of the window and is treated to another sunny smile. He recalls how all of the memories he saw during – or after – the accident seemed to involve sunshine and he wonders if he was being guided towards Roger. It is a fanciful notion and not one he ever intends to tell anyone about – he pushes it to the back of his mind. Whether fate intervened or not he is glad that he has now met Roger and seems destined to see him again.


End file.
